Guatemalan Chronicles

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Hello all,

I recently returned from my 6 week trip to study Spanish in Guatemala. During my stay, I lived in the city of Quetzaltenango, or Xela for short. I learned a lot of Spanish and had some exciting adventures along the way. Here are some of the highlights from my trip:

Spanish, Spanish, and more Spanish
I studied Spanish with a private tutor for 5 hours everyday and stayed with a huge host family. This gave me plenty of exposure to Spanish and lots of opportunities to practice speaking. Needless to say, my Spanish speaking abilities improved in leaps and bounds. I definitely experienced some frustration along the way as I tried to communicate my needs in another language, but I came back from the trip with much better fluency and I am using my new Spanish skills to communicate with Spanish speaking clients everyday in my job as a family therapist.

Fun, Games, and Children
My host family consisted of the maternal grandmother (affectionately referred to as “Abuelita”, three grandchildren (Richard - 8, Jackie - 10, Hans -14), two student borders from rural indigenous families (Pollo - 12, Maynor - 15), and one adult male border. The parents in the family were both living and working in the US while the grandmother cared for the children. I enjoyed talking with my host family and listening to their many jokes. They were always joking around with each other and telling stories. Jackie, the only girl, connected with me and would always talk about how her brothers were “crazy” and boys were “crazy” in general. Hans was in love with a girl at his school and enjoyed showing me pictures of his girlfriend on the computer and their most recent “love notes” via cell phone text messages. I also enjoyed playing jump rope and other games with the kids. I sometimes helped them with English homework and they would help me with my Spanish homework.

Traditional Dress and Language
One of my favorite things about Guatemala was observing the colorful, intricate traditional dress worn by people in the smaller towns and villages. Each region had its own style of weaving and dress. There are 35 different Mayan languages in Guatemala and as many or more different types of dress. It was very cool to see the different indigenous influences in the different regions around Guatemala.

Quetzaltenango (Xela) - The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
As the second largest city in Guatemala, Quetzaltenango or Xela for short had a lot to offer. We enjoyed walking around the Central Park in the evenings and hanging out in the many cafes. The outdoor market had a variety of goods including snack foods, vegetables, fruits, meat, tortillas, food stalls, clothes, and music. We also enjoyed learning about the history of Xela at the historical museum and seeing the beautiful central church. What looked like closed off garages at night opened up to small shops and homes during the day, sometimes revealing beautiful courtyards inside. Once opened, the doors revealed bread shops, stationary stores, grocery stores, Laundromats, photo copy shops, cafes, restaurants, and chocolate factories. We found several tasty restaurants including an Italian restaurant, a pizza place, and a fondue place. On occasion, we even sampled the local bars and dance clubs. We also got to see some of the interesting night life, including the local cross-dressers who would hang out on the corner near my host family’s house. During our last week in Xela, we discovered a big shopping mall with an International food court. The only drawback to Xela was the pollution and traffic. We tried not to breathe the smoke from the diesel engines and we tried not to get run over by the fast-moving traffic. Having been bitten twice by street dogs in Thailand, I also spent many nights trying to avoid the street dogs in Xela as we walked along the streets back to our houses.

Traveling Guatemalan Style - All the Comforts of Home without the Comfort
Our primary mode of transportation as we toured around Guatemala was the “chicken bus”. Composed of old US school buses that have been converted for use as public transportation, the “chicken bus” experience is not for the faint of heart. Rumor has it that the title “chicken bus” is derived from two primary sources: 1. The chickens (and/or other types of live animals that sit on the luggage rack above everyone’s head. My teachers said that chickens are mostly carried on the roof of the bus nowadays, so you generally don’t see chickens inside the buses. However, we did see some plastic bags on the luggage racks that were making suspicious movements, so I think we still had some stowaways of the animal nature. 2. The drivers of the “chicken buses” like to play “chicken” with other cars, trucks, and buses on the highways. Riding on these buses was literally a hair-raising experience. Most of the time, I tried not to look as we crossed into oncoming traffic zooming past other cars and weaving in and out of traffic. The amazing part was that all of this would happen while the young boy who collects the money was hanging out the side of the bus and whistling at cars to let them know we were passing. These boys regularly performed daring feats such as going through the emergency exit to climb on top of the moving bus to untie peoples’ belongings in time to throw them down to the exiting passengers. After jumping down from the bus, calling out for more passengers to get on, and ushering the passengers onto the bus, they would run alongside the bus and jump on as the bus departed. We also quickly learned that no matter what type of bus or van we were on, there was always room for more people. We routinely sat in buses with three people in each seat and standing passengers packed into the aisles. On one occasion the bus was so full that we were literally standing on the bottom step of the door with the money collector hanging out the door behind us. Needless to say, traveling around Guatemala was usually not a comfortable or quick experience.

While traveling on the “chicken buses” was generally an experience in ignoring the fact that you were being squished like a sardine and in praying that you would make it to your destination safely while watching the oncoming truck that was inches away from hitting you head on, the “chicken bus” was the cheapest form of travel and it took you just about anywhere you wanted to go in Guatemala. Here are some of the places we got to see via the “chicken bus”.

The “Disneyworld” of Guatemala
During our first weekend in Guatemala, we traveled to the beautiful town of Antigua, just outside of Guatemala City. Antigua was kind of like the “Disneyworld” of Guatemala with neatly lined clean streets and beautiful ancient buildings. We toured the ancient buildings overgrown with plants and enjoyed the rooftop views of the tree-lined streets. We enjoyed some traditional music from a street band and listened to an Andean band as we enjoyed dinner at a terrace café. We got up early on Saturday morning to tour the active volcano of Pacaya. After a 2 hour hike up the mountain, we got an up-close view of the hot lava flowing from the volcano. We walked right on top of some of the lava as it cooled and felt the steam rising from inside the volcano. My friend even melted the bottoms of her shoes from standing too long in the same place. Some people even roasted marshmallows from the heat of the volcano.

Flores and Tikal
After taking the night bus from Guatemala City to Flores and arriving at a cozy hostel, we started out by joining a photographer from “Rough Guide” on a trip to Ixpanpajul to ride the zip line through the forest canopy. We walked into neighboring Santa Elena to find a bus to Ixpanpajul. As we walked through town, we were pursued by a van driver who offered us progressively lower prices for a ride to Ixpan. However, our group was determined to go the cheaper and more adventurous route by taking the bus. After walking about three miles to the opposite end of town, we finally found the bus terminal. However, after walking around the bus terminal, we found that there were no buses going to Ixpan. After negotiating a price with a taxi driver, eight of us squeezed into a small taxi. Our 8 kilometer trip to the park was quite amusing. Once we arrived, we enjoyed the zip line with it’s great forest canopy views. On the way back, we squeezed back into the taxi and spent most of the time negotiating with the taxi driver to get dropped off closer to the hostel. The taxi driver kept trying to raise the price and we finally agreed on a lower price plus a generous tip.

We woke up at 3am the next morning to catch the shuttle for a sunrise tour of Tikal. We climbed into the shuttle and heading off towards Tikal, an ancient Mayan city of ruins surrounded by the forest. The shuttle was 40 minutes late picking us up and late arriving in Tikal, so we had to sprint up several flights of stairs to the sunrise lookout spot atop one of the ancient temples. Once on top, we sat and listened to the sounds of the forest while watching the sunrise over the temple ruins. It was a peaceful and awesome experience. The sounds of howler monkeys dominated the scene and several toucans flew back and forth between the trees. After silently watching the sunrise and taking in the forest sounds, we continued with a guided tour of the ruins. It was amazing to tour and climb the towering pyramids in the midst of the forest. This thriving city was buried after its collapse in 900AD and rediscovered beneath the trees in 1848. The park contains thousands of ruined structures, some open to the public and others still buried underneath the trees. We had to use a long ladder to climb some of the taller temples that were 55 meters high. We also had a tour guide who enjoyed chatting with the ladies. My friend Kathy even got a marriage proposal from him.

Samuc Champuey
After spending another night in Flores, we headed off to Samuc Champuey. We had yet another adventure in a Guatemalan shuttle. We took what we thought would be a direct shuttle to Samuc Champuey. About two hours into our drive, the shuttle driver informed us that he would be returning to Flores to pick up two more passengers. He offered us the option of staying in the shuttle to go back to Flores or waiting in a small town while the shuttle returned to Flores. After arguing with the driver and saying that we had paid for a direct route, the driver finally agreed not to make the two hour trip back to Flores. So we continued towards Samuc Champuey and drove onto a small ferry to cross the river. Six hours after leaving Flores, we arrived in Lanquin, a small town 9 kilometers north of Samuc Champuey. The driver said that he was not going to drive us the rest of the way to Samuc Champuey. When we argued that we had paid to go all the way to Samuc Champuey, the driver said “ok, ok, ok” and proceeded to drop us off next to a pick up truck heading to Samuc Champuey. We hopped into the back of the pick up truck in the midst of a large church group from Guatemala City heading up to Samuc Champuey for a retreat. After waiting for about 15 minutes in the back of the truck, the driver started up the engine and we thought we were headed up to Samuc Champuey. However, 2 kilometers down the road, the driver stopped at a friend’s house. While the driver went inside and visited with his friend for about 30 minutes, the rest of us waited in the back of the truck and wondered when we were actually going to leave for Samuc Champuey. After the driver got back into the truck and started driving, the driver proceeded to drive through town, trying to pick up more passengers. However, there was no more space as there were already 20 of us standing up in the back of this pick up truck. Finally, we headed up the windy, mountainous dirt road to Samuc Champuey. After holding on for life and joking around with the people from the church group about the ride, we were glad to arrive in one piece. We thought we had arrived at a peaceful retreat in the forest. However, we were wrong. The hostel was crowded with partying tourists and we strained to talk over the band. Then, as we started to go to sleep in our cabin, the couple sharing a wall with us decided to share their joy at 10:30pm and again at 3am. Needless to say, we did not get much sleep that night. However, things turned around the next morning. We started off going on a hike to the overlook above the beautiful pools of natural springs and ended with a relaxing swim in the pools. In the afternoon, we toured the caves by candlelight. I got a little taste of adventure as we swam in the cave pools, climbed rope ladders, and climbed through small crevices all by candlelight. We ended the tour by jumping off a rope swing and tubing down the river back to our hostel.

Zunil and San Simon
During our first week in Guatemala, we hopped on a chicken bus with one of our teachers and headed to Zunil, where we got to view “San Simon” a manikin who according to local Mayan tradition, is believed to be a reincarnated saint. San Simon is similar to a department store manikin. However, this manikin is well cared for by the villagers. Village families take turns honoring San Simon by taking care of him in their houses. Villagers adorn San Simon with flowers, candles, and incense. They also help San Simon smoke cigars and drink whisky. San Simon keeps a bed pan underneath his chair to catch the whisky when villagers pour whisky down his throat. Watching this spectacle was quite an experience. We also got to see the open air market with giant vegetables. I saw some carrots that were as big as my forearm. We also learned about the various types of weaving at the local weaving cooperative.

Fuentes Georginas
A couple of the more relaxed weekends found us hitching a ride to Fuentes Georginas, a beautiful natural hot springs area located in the mountains above Zunil. Our first time heading to Fuentes, we had to catch a chicken bus to Zunil and then we flagged down a pick up truck to head up the mountain. Between the bus and the pick up truck, the trip was a bit costly and time consuming. By my second trip to Fuentes, a local tour company had started offering a “comfortable chicken bus experience” directly from Xela to Fuentes. Amazingly, I got my own seat and the driver brought us directly to Fuentes and back. It was quite a different trip the second time.

San Andreas Xecul
After a relaxing morning at Fuentes, we decided to hop on another chicken bus and make our way to San Andreas Xecul, home to a funky, psychedelic church. This was another time when we ended up taking the long way. We hopped on a minibus going to the main bus terminal in Xela. However, being new in town, we did not know where we were going. We asked the money collector three different times to tell us when we had arrived at the terminal. It turns out that we passed the terminal twice without even knowing it. After sitting in the minibus for over an hour, going to the edge of town and starting to head back to the same exact place we had come from, we finally asked another passenger on the bus where the terminal was. The passenger told us that we had already stopped at the terminal 4 blocks ago. So, we jumped off the bus and walked. However, we had trouble finding “the terminal”. We finally figured out that to catch the bus we needed, we had to walk through a crowded market and when we came out on the other side, we found dozens of buses lined up along the street. We jumped on one of the buses we thought was going to San Andreas Xecul. However, like most things in Guatemala things are not always what they seem. After several minutes on the bus, the driver dropped us off at another junction and we had to wait for another bus to take us to San Andreas Xecul. Thus, three hours after we had set out for what we thought would be a thirty minute trip to San Andreas Xecul, we finally arrived. We looked inside the funky church and hiked up the mountain road going through town. At the top of the mountain, we found a great lookout point for pictures and ran into a man performing a Mayan ceremony. He placed an egg into a fire and rubbed the egg on villagers to rid them of bad spirits and bring them good fortune.

Lago de Atitlan
Our last weekend adventure brought us to Lago de Atitlan, a large lake surrounded by several small indigenous towns. Upon arrival, we walked through the streets of the hippy tourist town of Panajachel. We arrived at the dock and caught a small boat to San Pedro. Riding in a small boat in the dark of night without knowing anything about where we were going was quite an eerie experience. After arriving in San Pedro, we found a tuk-tuk driver to take us to a budget-priced hotel. However, once we arrived at the hotel, we found out that they no longer offered hostel rooms and the prices had tripled. Since we were in sticker shock, we decided to check out some of the other hotels around. We ended up in a low priced dive with cheap foam mattresses on boards that served as beds and a barely functioning toilet. The next morning, we headed back to the first hotel for breakfast atop the balcony with a beautiful view of the lake. We enjoyed chatting with the Spanish owners after breakfast. We then headed to San Marcos via tuk-tuk. When we arrived in San Marcos, we discovered streets filled with garbage after the massive party that had taken place the previous night. Tired of carrying our backpacks around, we settled on a cozy hotel room with comfy beds and a hot shower. Little did we realize that the party was going to continue that night and they would be blasting music until 4am. We took a short trip by boat to the town of Santa Cruz, which turned out to be our favorite of the towns around Lake Atitlan. We discovered some nice hostels with cozy chairs and beautiful, quiet lakeside views. We then headed up the mountain into town, where we found the school band practicing on the playground and watched some local children playing basketball. We continued up the mountain in pursuit of local weavers. We found a weaver making traditional dress and also met a woman selling intricately beaded key chains. The walk into Santa Cruz was a great way to experience local indigenous culture. As we walked around some of the towns in Atitlan, we found that communication was sometimes difficult as many of the local people spoke indigenous languages and spoke little Spanish. Sunday morning, we headed out of San Marcos back to Panajachel by boat. I soon discovered that overcrowding not only applied to the chicken buses, but also applied to boats as well. As the passengers crowded on, I tried not to worry too much that the top of the boat was only a few inches from sinking underneath the water. However, we made it back without sinking (we were a bit wet from splashing water though).

We then headed to the tourist market of Chichicastenango where I discovered that the venders had tripled their prices especially for the tourists. However, I was able to do some bargaining and get some lower prices on some things. The huge market went on for blocks and blocks and the vendors had everything from clothes to blankets to handbags to paintings to small souvenirs. Just about anything you could think of. It was quite a feat weaving through the crowded streets and getting pushed along by the crowd.

The Road Home
A few days before we were scheduled to go home, the buses went on strike because of the jump in gas prices. The government was not allowing them to increase bus fare to make up for the increased gas prices. As we pondered how we were going to get back to the airport in Guatemala City, the bus drivers came to an agreement with the government and the bus strike only lasted for one day. We decided to pay a little extra for a “direct” shuttle from Xela to Antigua that provided door to door service and then we would catch an early morning shuttle to the airport from Antigua. As with most of our rides in Guatemala, our last shuttle ride was an adventure as well. The shuttle arrived about 2 hours late to pick us up. After we finally hit the road, we discovered that our “direct shuttle to Antigua” was dropping off passengers in Atitlan before going to Antigua, pretty much the opposite direction of where we were going. About halfway to Atitlan along a curvy, mountainous road, we started to smell burning breaks and the driver decided to stop. The driver called the tour company to tell them about the breakdown and the agency told the driver to continue driving. The driver did not think it was safe to continue driving, so we waited. After waiting for over an hour for a repair person from only a few miles away to come and repair the shuttle, the driver decided to contact a friend to take us the rest of the way. After dropping off passengers in Atitlan, we once again took the long route as the drivers stopped every few kilometers to ask directions from the local villagers in each town. Eight hours later, we arrived in Antigua (a trip we thought would only take 3 hours). Travel weary and sick, we went to bed early and left at 4am the next morning to head to the airport. Our Guatemalan adventure had ended and it was back to reality.

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Photos

Overlook of Xela
Overlook of Xela from the famous Baul Mountain.

My Room
My lovely dormitorio for 6 weeks with my host family.

Tortilla Making
Cooking the tortillas.

Xela Street View
View of Central Park from the cobblestone streets.

Mayan Statue at Baul
Mayan statue on our hike to Baul.

Antigua
Clocktower overlooking the cobblestone streets of Antigua.

Flores
Sunset over the museum island.

Ixpanpajul
Me on the zipline amongst the forest canopy.

Tikal
Sunrise over the Tikal ruins.

En route to Samuc Champuey
The ferry crossing on the way to Samuc Champuey.

Samuc Champuey
The beautfiful, cool, refreshing pools of Samuc Champuey.

Market Day
The colorful market in Zunil. Note the traditional dress of the vendors.

Fuentes Georginas
Kathy and I at the beutiful hot springs of Fuentes Georginas.

San Andreas Xecul
The psychadelic church at San Andreas Xecul.

San Andreas Xecul
Mayan priest performing a traditional ceremony to rid the bad spirits and import the good spirits.

Atitlan
Boating in San Pedro.

Atitlan
Girl overlooking the lake in San Marcos.

Atitlan
Traditional weaver in Santa Cruz.

Atitlan
The crowded boat ride back to Panajachel.

Graduation
Teacher Julio presents my graduation certificate.